Jornalists speaking truth to power

By Alice Paulse

Delegates arriving, press passes flashed around. Volunteers wait hand and foot to assist where possible. This is the scene at  the 17th Highway Africa Conference, the largest gathering of African journalists in the world.

The topic of this year's conference was, "Speaking truth to power?"Media,Politics &Accountability.

 

To kick off the two- day conference, delegates were welcomed by Chris Kabwato, the Director of Highway Africa Centre.

 

Important topics such as media and politics as well as ethics in the media- what is broken and how can it be fixed were discussed. 

 

Esteemed academics such as Professor Shakauntala Rao, Dr Jacinta Maweu and Amadou Mahtar Ba were panelists and had to answer  some tough questions about ethics and their opinions on the matter.

 

Other interesting topics of the day were; press regulation and journalistic accountability. as well as media being a partner for change and transparency.

 Highway Africa is an opportunity to network with journalists from around the continent.

 

The Highway Africa Conference reminds journalists that in order to speak truth to power, we as journalists need to speak truth to ourselves.

 

For aspiring journalists; this is a once in a life time opportuninty as you get to meet many journalists that are making waves in the industry.

 

As a aspiring journalists myself, I feel that the conference has added value to my studies and I will not forget the valuable discussions that took place.